fiend, i use a double bowline too, in fact, almost all of my friends that climb hard (5.13's and 5.14's) use a double bowline too. a double figure eight sucks because it gets so tight when you fall on it alot, like when you are working a route, that it becomes sometimes almost impossible to untie it (especially if you use a thin rope, like a 9.4mm). I have seen people come down after getting bouted by a route, and being pretty pissed, and then unable to untie their rope because the fig.8 got so tight that it takes them half an hour to untie, or they have to get their belayer to untie it for them, or once i even saw my friend pull out his knife and cut the knot off!!

the only place you will get alot of hastle from people for a bowline is in a climbing gym, or if you are climbing with a bunch of gymrat's or beginners who have been brainwashed to think that "a double figure 8 is the ONLY safe knot to tie in with" (which is B.S.). a double fig.8 is better for beginners because it is easy to check and hard to tie it wrong, a double bowline is much easier to mess-up, and not easy to vissually check. Both are equally safe (100%), so safety isn't the issue, it's convienience and personal prefferance.

I fugure a slip knot would be best. I mean what motivates you better than knowing your going to die if you don't send? Well... maybe knot. I use a double eight wi. no safety. If there's extra rope it stabs me in the eye on occasion, which tends to suck.

i am not sure who i was watching before, long time ago and that is how they did it...i think the same thing...one more link to go wrong. after i posted that, i figured tha it was kinda dumb figureing tha tmost of us don't do it. But I have seen it done before.

compclimber: the reason I safety the bowline on the bottom is so that the tail can be threaded back through my tie in loops and hang out of the way. This keeps the knot slightly more compact so that it doesn't get in the way while clipping.